Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Feinberg's recent press conference could have started with his saying the following. “Hi, I am a lawyer and I am here to help!” When the GM victim payout is over will we think Kenneth Feinberg helped. I vote NO!

HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH FEINBERG

www.goodmorningflint.blogspot.com

Families of those killed in crashes involving General Motors’ deadly ignition switches will be offered at least $1 million if they can prove the defective part caused their accidents.[12

GM victim compensation director Kenneth Feinberg, who also led the 9/11 compensation and BP oil spill funds, said today that people who suffered injuries or families of victims who died because of the defect qualify for settlements and can begin filing claims Aug. 1.[12]

I wrote the following while following the BP Gulf payout as an observer. I think it applies to todays analysis of Feinberg.

Kenneth R. Feinberg ... has been front and center in some of the most complex legal disputes of the past three decades: Agent Orange, asbestos, the closing of the Shoreham Nuclear Plant, and 9/11. He is adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and the University of Virginia.[3]

Many people complained about the lack of communication or claims paid under the administration of Kenneth Feinberg, the appointee who disbursed $6.1 billion in oil spill claims to 221,000 claimants. Patrick Juneau was installed in March to implement a new court-supervised process for distributing what BP estimates will be $7.8 billion for claims covered by a recent class-action settlement.[7]

Feinberg the British Petroleum BP money man and overseer of the bureaucratic misery caused by his administration of victim claims against BP British Petroleum whose negligence diminished the fishing industry in the gulf of mexico and destroyed economic and real lives of thousands dependent on this economy.

As he explains in his new book Who Gets What, his task is to maximize prompt, fair payouts and minimize dilatory litigation.[1]

Feinberg wasn't part of the VOO program, that was bp and the subcontractors. Feinberg came in on the back end of that.

"There's never been a private claims facility like this. We received over 1 million claims from 50 states and 35 foreign countries we paid out $6.5 billion before the first trial was even scheduled to begin," said Feinberg.[2]

The judge brought payments to the halt the day the settlement was reached "in principle" and feinberg was dismissed. The buck was passed to the court claims, and even though the infrastructure was the same key players; no economic claims are moving. Why? In many cases claimants have provided documentation from 2007- 2011 month and months and month ago?

Feinberg has done all his government and university work pro bono, but he figures that BP paid his law firm around $18 million. “It depends on the circumstances,”he says. “Another terrorist attack? Of course I’d do it for free. Another shooting at a university? Of course I’d do it for free. Oil company, wrongdoer, willing to foot the bill—of course I won’t do it for free.” [1]

Do not trust Feinberg to do the right thing in the GM Ignition Victem payout!

Feinberg had mentors that mapped every move of his elite career. What is his history. He is nothing more than an apologist for Big Corporations the ultimate corporatist. Feinberg was the administrator of the chaos remedy, his real job to keep the public at bay and the press muffled. His personal history is one of protecting government, the politicians he socializes with from that mix of intellectual and money elites are high positioned people we defer too but whose true agenda is preservation of their wealth and power and their dependence on corporation political support.

Feinberg assignments have always ended with payouts equal to what insurance would cover.His mission is to make us feel good and minimize the corporate damages.

He is a Corporatist as defined by Naomi Klien in Shock Doctrine.

Did you know the smallest players whose lives were so totally devastated the Charter Fishing Captains and those that book their clients have yet to be paid.

Feinberg has long stated that he put himself behind the proverbial eight-ball in the Gulf by overpromising how quickly he could get emergency payments to spill victims. In the book, he is even more self-critical on that point:

"In meeting after meeting during the first weeks of the GCCF, I made the ridiculous public pledge that 'the GCCF will pay eligible individual claimants within forty-eight hours and eligible businesses within one week.' Talk about a self-inflicted wound!" Feinberg writes. "Underestimating the volume and complexity of the claims, I promised what I could not possibly deliver. As a result, the GCCF was immediately placed on the defensive."[4\]

IS FEINBERG REPEATING HISTORY WITH THE GM PAYOUT?

The compensation fund is unlimited, he said. If Feinberg determines that the defect was the “substantial cause” of the accident, he will use actuarial tables and average medical cost data to calculate the size of a payout. The families of people who died will get at least $1 million.[12]

He said the volume of claims kept him from holding individual meetings with claimants, something he considered critical to upholding a sense of justice. It was clear that Feinberg wanted to do that because throughout the GCCF, he promised claimants who confronted him in person or sent him letters and emails that he would review their claims "personally." That sometimes got him in trouble, making it appear that he was providing certain claimants with negotiated settlements rather than adhering to a formulaic method for paying similar claims equitably. [4]

Feinberg fumbled another ball as the administer of BP claims. Millions suffer yet he stands to make millions from telling the story . Where is the justice. He should profit no more from his book than a serial killer telling his tale.

Did you know Feinberg let a fleet of out of state boats come into the clean up and paid them yet the charter captains will be paid only if the offset against their claims of ⅓ is accepted.

Feinberg lied directly to my primary source out of Bon Secour booking charter out of Gulf Shores Alabama and surrounding areas. He told her there were no glitches in the online system which is even worse now that the courts have taken over. Feinberg made the local claims adjusters impotent and the distribution of economic claims to come to a halt.

Feinberg called the emergency payments received in Aug-Nov 2010 a gift. The amount of paperwork to qualify was mountainous and he called it a gift?

IN THE GM VICTIM PAYOUT GM CAN AGGRESSIVELY CONTEST THE CLAIM

Victims must submit evidence substantiating their claim — such as police reports, hospital records, vehicle data, insurance information and even the car involved in the accident if it’s still around.[12]

GM can provide evidence to dispute victims’ claims. But the company has agreed not to challenge the claims after Feinberg makes a determination.[12]

In March, Feinberg’s run at the helm of GCCF ended when a New Orleans federal judge appointed a new administrator. Congressman Jo Bonner sent out a tweet that read: “End of an Error.”[2]

He and his Washington law firm, Feinberg Rozen, was paid $1.25 million a month to dole out BP's money, leading to complaints that Feinberg was protecting BP's assets. On the other hand, he took just 18 months to pay 225,000 victims more than $6.2 billion, a record of speed and distribution that put to shame similar-scale compensation efforts, such as the post-Katrina Road Home program for homeowners.[4]

"That criticism is absolutely to be expected I accept it in good faith."

But he does not accept the assessment of his reign as being a failure. "By all accounts, I think that the distribution and just 18 months of $16.5 billion to 220,000 people is evidence of success," Feinberg said.[2]

Public officials at the state level have not been so reserved, harshly criticizing Feinberg and warning Gulf Coast residents about the claims process.

"I would not give him (Feinberg) very high marks, and I've said that personally to him in meetings, face-to-face," Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a Wednesday telephone interview.[5]

Strange added that the Obama administration "could do a much better job in holding his feet to the fire."[5]

A Feinberg spokeswoman declined to comment.

Feinberg has been increasingly under fire along the Gulf Coast, with local leaders accusing him and his staff of misleading the public, unfairly denying claims and managing the process with too little transparency.[5]

The livelihood of Charter Captains, men and women with everything at stake, has been destroyed by the BP oil spill and the incompetence of the Feinberg claims center.

The Charter Fishermen were told that if they helped in the clean up which they did it would not lower their claims which it has. This ⅓ pay back applies only to charter fishermen and not shrimpers, not oystermen, not the guys that fish for the same fish but sell them, just the Charter Fishermen. Where is the justice in this? TO PRESIDENT OBAMA WHERE IS THE JUSTICE.

WE HOPE THAT THE GM STATED POLICY PROVES TO BE TRUE.

“We are pleased that Mr. Feinberg has completed the next step with our ignition switch compensation program to help victims and their families,” Barra said in a statement. “We are taking responsibility for what has happened by treating them with compassion, decency and fairness. To that end, we are looking forward to Mr. Feinberg handling claims in a fair and expeditious manner.”[12]